cleepa wrote: ↑Sat Aug 14, 2021 6:22 pm
A friend and I did this. I definitely recommend it - it is not hard to sew or splice your own lines. Here's a summary of what I have learned:
- Get front line material that is slightly thicker than the back line material. Front lines take a greater share of the load. Doing this means
they will stretch at roughly the same rate. After I make a line set, I have never had to restretch them to tune them. If I remember right, my
front lines are 600lb breaking strength and the back lines are 400lb. It is whatever Wainman used to use - that is who I got the info from.
- I use a Brummel splice with pigtails. Never had anything break.
- My friend uses a sleeve + sewn loop. Also never had anything break. This is made much easier if you make a plastic holder for use during sewing.
- SK75 has been fine, but if I did it again I would go for SK99 for the upgraded specs. But that will probably never happen. I bought 2000m of line material as there was a minimum order of 1000m on a spool!
- It is very cheap... I think the material cost for me for a set of lines is US $15.
- The made in China thing is nothing to worry about.
That's where most of the line material for major brands is made. We bought through Alibaba, and with not much searching found the supplier for one of the major brands. I would personally choose to do it that way again.
That's all I can think of right now. Happy to answer questions if anyone has any.
Good job and thanks for sharing!
I need to correct you on 3 points though.
1. Good quality factory prestrerched lines don't stretch with use. Kite factories pretension the lines before cutting with 40 to 70kg.
2. Most of the lines for major kite brands, and a number of small ones too, are made in Europe. I don't know a single major brand not getting their lines from one of these European line manufacturers (in alphabetical order):
- Braidtech
- Cousin (but not Dyneema)
- Liros
- Teufelberger/Robline
Marlow make SK99 kite lines too, but not sure if any of the big brands are sourcing from them.
For Slingshot and Naish I'm not certain if they use lines from above suppliers.
3. 600lbs/400lbs are rather low values for most of the major kite brands, with the exception of some foil/race bars where thin lines are essential for low drag.
The actual loads on the lines are way lower during normal use, but to guarantee durability and safety it is necessary to overspec them significantly.
Can you please measure the approx diameter of the 2 lines you bought from China? If they are not perfectly round, the thinnest and thickest cross section will do. Put few kg load on the line when measuring. Thanks!